How the heck is it that Marie Bowness of Canada is the tech specialist for two successive Worlds in ice dance? Talk about severe unfair advantage there, given that the single most important person for setting levels in the tech specialist. And that these placements of tech panels are done direcly by Cinquanta with the assistance of the head of figure skating, Dave Dore of Canada, with some suggestions by the federation holding the championships, Canada.

Canada also has the ATS for Pairs (and a Pairs judge), the Referee for Ladies, and the Tech Controller for Men.
It looks as if Canada took the tech/ref spots in return for not having judges in Men, Ladies and Dance.

Not Surprising really
really Canada wants to own the podium on home ice with Gold in Ice Dance and Men, Bronze for Ladies , Silver (and Bronze ) maybe for Pairs, lol
as I said V/M are locks for gold no matter how they will skate too bad for D/W

Not Surprising really
really Canada wants to own the podium on home ice with Gold in Ice Dance and Men, Bronze for Ladies , Silver (and Bronze ) maybe for Pairs, lol
as I said V/M are locks for gold no matter how they will skate too bad for D/W

I think we all know Davis and White are sure winners - you can bet the mortgage. NO home town favourites or anything can stop them. Yes, they are good but for some reason judges are liking them more right now than V and M. Really Va nd M's Carmen like it or not really is innovative and hardly safe. I was wondering about the comment about the "lock" until I read who it was. V and M's decision with Carmen has led to lifts that aren't as smooth looking. You know I am not sure i like this approach or not. And in skating you don't necessarly get rewarded for stretching yourself. You really could do the same performance to the same type of music and what counts is that you get the levels and it is clean. There isn't points for stretching yoruself. If V and M were smart they should go back to a Mahler type routine. I have to say while I like the people far better of D and W I really do not know how in the world they got such high marks for their flamenco or tango/spanish themed freeskate a few years ago and that is the most I have seen them push themselves. But

Do people think Judy Blumberg is an "uber" because she was critical of V/M at Worlds two years ago? Or is there a substantive reason?

The former. It's worth remembering that Blumberg was on the panel that shellacked D/W at 4CC in 2012 that raises a few eyebrows. It's also worth mentioning that the USA has three representatives on the tech panels as well.

I do wish that it wasn't the case, if only because you can totally see people using this to tarnish any results they don't like (see the prediction thread, or even doris' comments).

I would have to find a questionable call before I did any tarnishing, but I think that when you look at how frequently Marie Bowness is assigned when D&W face V&M since D&W won at 2011 Worlds, (she was the assistant caller at this year's GPF), it has a bad appearance, whether she is a fair person or not. D&W face each other 3 times a year at serious events; GPF, 4CCs & Worlds. In the last 2 years, Bowness has been at 2 of the 3 events. If you want to count WTT, it's four events, but to me WTT is not serious in the way the other events are.

I found your post is lack of logic. It doesn't matter how often Ms Bowness is assigned as long as she is professional and fair. In most of the events you mentioned, D/W won over V/M. Dosen't that speak loudly for itself? If anything, I'll say it's you that have a bias against Ms Bowness and V/M. So quit whining and stop spreading conspiracy theory.

Originally Posted by dorispulaski

I would have to find a questionable call before I did any tarnishing, but I think that when you look at how frequently Marie Bowness is assigned when D&W face V&M since D&W won at 2011 Worlds, (she was the assistant caller at this year's GPF), it has a bad appearance, whether she is a fair person or not. D&W face each other 3 times a year at serious events; GPF, 4CCs & Worlds. In the last 2 years, Bowness has been at 2 of the 3 events. If you want to count WTT, it's four events, but to me WTT is not serious in the way the other events are.

I think we all know Davis and White are sure winners - you can bet the mortgage. NO home town favourites or anything can stop them. Yes, they are good but for some reason judges are liking them more right now than V and M. Really Va nd M's Carmen like it or not really is innovative and hardly safe. I was wondering about the comment about the "lock" until I read who it was. V and M's decision with Carmen has led to lifts that aren't as smooth looking. You know I am not sure i like this approach or not. And in skating you don't necessarly get rewarded for stretching yourself. You really could do the same performance to the same type of music and what counts is that you get the levels and it is clean. There isn't points for stretching yoruself. If V and M were smart they should go back to a Mahler type routine. I have to say while I like the people far better of D and W I really do not know how in the world they got such high marks for their flamenco or tango/spanish themed freeskate a few years ago and that is the most I have seen them push themselves. But

not really, that momentum of D/W gap isn't even that big, at 4CC V/M beat D/W in SD and they won F/D also with the help of V/M little incident
and by Worlds I don't think that will happen, I will literally be shocked if D/W win

How the heck is it that Marie Bowness of Canada is the tech specialist for two successive Worlds in ice dance?

Shin Amano of Japan has been technical specialist in the ladies event for 3 years in a row: 2010, 2011 and 2012. It's not a first, though it wasn't a matter of national favoritism with him, he was pretty strict to all the ladies in the end(even stricter to Mao in 2010). Let's see the competition outcome before, it might turn out alright.

What it does say, is there are not enough technical specialists yet in either ladies or dance; it is one of the things about IJS that annoys me. My preference would be that the specialist would not be from the top 3 ranked countries in a championship event (Worlds, 4CCs, Europeans, GPF).